"I just wish the message had got there sooner, that maybe Brian wouldn't have taken four lives before he got the “good news”. But I was thrilled that Ashley was able to have the presence of mind to talk to him. And when he got the concept, it changed his life.”
Brian Nichols held Ashley Smith at gun point but subsequently released her unharmed. It was national news and it put Rick Warren on TV. He was on the world viewed news because Ashley Smith, during the ordeal, had read to Nichols from Warren’s book, the Purpose Driven Life!
It was nothing short of a miracle that Ashley was released from the known killer unharmed. It was also a miracle that the catalyst for the miracle was the book and words of Rick Warren. CNN reported that reading from Warren’s “best selling book” is what actually changed Brian Nichols life.
On the day of Ashley’s abduction, March 15, 2005, Nichols had been on a killing spree that caused what was being reported as “the largest manhunt in Georgia’s history.” It lasted 26 hours.
As it was reported, Nichols was being escorted to trial for rape charges when upon arrival to the courthouse he overpowered his female escort. Leaving her beaten, he stole her gun, held three people captive then went into a courtroom where he proceeded to shoot the judge in the head, and kill the court reporter. He shot and killed a deputy sheriff, too, leaving the scene calm, cool, and collected. Nichols simply escaped to the streets.
He stole several cars at gunpoint, and spent the day baffling police and terrorizing the people he encountered as he made his way through Atlanta’s city streets. The whole state was on the hunt for an escaped killer… His name and face were everywhere, there were plenty of witnesses and videotapes to identify him too and the news of his escapade spread from coast to coast. Officials offered a $60,000 reward for his whereabouts.
Later in the day, after a failed robbery, Nichols found another victim. Shooting and killing him he took his truck, and drove away. Shortly thereafter, he met up with Ashley Smith.
The story is that he forced his way into her apartment when she was returning from the store. He tied her up, took a shower in her apartment, and somehow she began to earn his trust. She even accompanied him to hide the truck, they returned to her apartment where she made him pancakes and he let her leave to visit her daughter at her aunt’s house, from where she called police.
It was excellent news that day for everyone as CNN reported that police apprehended Nichols, but better was the news that the woman he had kidnapped, Ashley Smith was found unharmed, but there was a twist to the story... the media was especially amazed because Ashley was a Christian and the word was that her reading to Brian that day about God from a book by Pastor Rick Warren from Saddleback Church was what actually saved her life. They reported that the message of the book made Brian turn himself into authorities! It was a nationally talked about conversion... and Rick Warren who authored the book, rushed to the scene to congratulate her.
Regarding the incident, Rick Warren said in camera “I just wish the message had got there sooner, that maybe Brian wouldn't have taken four lives before he got the ‘good news’. But I was thrilled that Ashley was able to have the presence of mind to talk to him. And when he got the concept, it changed his life.”
Rick Warren assured a watching and astonished world, that Nichols got “the concept.” But what exactly is “the concept” that Brian got that day that “changed his life?” Rick’s concept, of the Good News was not about Jesus, but that “God loves Brian and had a purpose for Brian’s life.”
It is “good news,”very good news, that Ashley Smith was not raped or murdered by Nichols. It is good news that Nichols is in prison where he is less likely to hurt another person. However, it is apparent that “the concept,” whatever it was, wasn’t Jesus Christ, it could not have been, for Brian didn’t repent. He didn’t even admit his guilt.
It was a glorious day for Rick when CNN gave him this free airtime, to tell what happened that day with Ashley Smith and to tell the world what the message... the good news was! Rick Warren was on National News and he had a golden opportunity to tell the world the good news too.... and he did! We all heard so well how it happened, how reading the Purpose Driven Life, saved Ashley’s life and helped Brian turn his life around, because now he understood that his life had purpose and meaning after all!
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